Pages

Thursday, 30 April 2015

My sweet friend Lesley gave me the Penny Black 'Flourish' die for my birthday - it's so delicate and beautiful! Lesley's birthday is also in April so I used my new gift on the birthday card I made for her.

To make the background I sponged Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks through a stencil and layered the panel onto a black CS mat. I die cut the flourish and glued that in place, making sure to keep some areas without glue to add a bit of dimension. I die cut the dragonfly, added sparkle to the wings with a silver Gelly Roll Stardust pen and adhered the dragonfly. I stamped the sentiment, added the die cut corners and tied ribbon around the panel which I then glued to the front of a 5 3/4" square Bermuda Bay card base. I added a few sparkly gems to finish the front.

Here's the inside of the card with a die cut sentiment and some sweet stamped and die cut dragonflies. I die cut the sentiment from black CS and glued it over a strip of Bermuda Bay CS. I used the silver Gelly Roll Stardust pen again on the dragonflies wings.

Here's the envelope with another beautiful flourish and a die cut name label element. I really enjoyed making this card for Lesley!

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

My friend Jan gave me the gorgeous SU! 'Something Lacy' stamp for my birthday and I wanted to use it to make her a thank you card. I've had no time recently to make cards for myself as I've been so busy with stuff for classes. I managed to get some crafty me time on Friday and I had a wonderful time getting inky creating this card!

I stamped the lace onto Whisper White CS with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white powder. I used ink duster brushes to apply Broken China, Faded Jeans and Evergreen Bough Distress Inks, trimmed the panel to size and inked the edges with SU! Night of Navy ink. I layered the panel onto a Night of Navy CS mat and placed a rhinestone brad in each corner. That lacy goodness is far too pretty to cover up so I opted to make a die cut sentiment the focal point on top of the background. Using Night of Navy CS I cut a strip to go across the card, die cut my new Spellbinder's 'Pierced Delight' label shape and popped that up. I die cut two white sentiment labels and popped up the stamped 'Thank You' label. I die cut the Joanna Sheen 'Lace Edger 2' border from 'Harborside' Core'dinations CS, glued that behind the Night of Navy mat and adhered the whole panel to the front of a 7" x 5" white card base. A bit of sparkle is always good and I completed the front by sprinkling on a few rhinestone gems.

Here's the inside and the envelope flap.

Here's the front of the envelope. The fancy corner was made with a 'Floral Corner 1' Spellbinders D-Lites die - also a gift from Jan. For the inside and the envelope I inked the Something Lacy stamp with Broken China, Faded Jeans and Evergreen Bough Distress Inks, stamped it onto Whisper White CS and cut strips from the stamped piece.

Saturday, 25 April 2015

On Thursday I ran two classes at the Glitter Pot - the morning class was Beautiful Backgrounds and the afternoon class was Pop Out Cards. What a lovely way to spend a day!

Distress Inks were used for all the Beautiful Backgrounds cards - everyone went home with very inky fingers! This first card uses the fab water stamping technique which creates soft, subtle background interest. I applied Broken China and Dusty Concord inks to a panel of white CS using Smoothies ink blending sponges, keeping the coverage fairly light. I spritzed the Penny Black 'Peacock Feathers' background stamp with water from a Mini Mister bottle - about 8 to 10 spritzes - stamped onto the panel and dried it with a heat tool. Distress Inks react with water so the water lifts off the ink where the rubber touches the CS. You'll get different results depending on how lightly or heavily you've water spritzed and depending on the colours and amount of inks applied. It really is a wonderful background technique and is well worth experimenting with. I stamped a sentiment and images from the Woodware 'Grass Stems' set and inked the edges of the panel with Black Soot Distress ink. I attached a strip of gingham ribbon, a separate bow, layered the panel onto a mat of Broken China CS and adhered the mat to the front of a white A6 card base. I used a black Gelly Roll Glaze Pen to add gloss highlights to the dandelion heads.

Here's a closer look at the very pretty water stamped background.

For the second card I switched to Mini Ink Blending Tools to apply Distress Inks to a white CS panel. I punched a 1 1/2" circle of thin white card and attached the circle to the panel with removable adhesive to act as a moon mask. I applied Faded Jeans and Seedless Preserves inks, opting for a deeper colour coverage than the previous card, and removed the circle mask. I didn't want the moon to remain stark white so I lightly sponged some of both inks over the moon before I stamped the Woodware 'Wheat' image. Using the non brush end of a paintbrush I took a little bit of Perfect Pearls 'Pearl' powder from a pot, placed it on a tile and spritzed the powder with water to get a pearly white paint. I mixed the powder and water with a brush and then flicked the brush over the panel to add the lovely shimmery speckles - a great tip I got from a Jennifer McGuire video! I then cut my panel into five pieces, inked the edges of each piece with Black Soot ink and adhered the panels to the front of a white A6 card, popping up the top right and bottom left panels.

Here's a closer look at the inking and pearly speckles.

For the third background card I used a stencil and Shabby Shutters and Evergreen Bough inks. I returned to my much loved 'egg sponges' (the Smoothies ink blending sponges) as they are SO easy to use with stencils. I taped the 'Eastern' stencil down over a panel of ivory card and applied the inks by dabbing with the sponges. I think 'pouncing' is the correct arty term but one of the ladies said I was 'bouncing' the sponges and I like that description much better! I don't rub with the sponges when I'm stencilling, I just bounce and I still end up with a nice blend of colours even though I've not rubbed. I stamped the sentiment and a couple of Geometric Leaves images using Walnut Stain ink, inked the edges of the panel with Walnut Stain ink and glued the panel to the front of a cream A6 card base to finish.

Here's a closer look at the sponged ink stencilling.

For the afternoon class I made two gatefold pop out cards. These look quite daunting at first but the fancy pop out inserts only require six folds - they're easy when you know how! This first card is kept closed by a belly band that slides on and off. The balloon and stars were cut using punches and the wording was cut from patterned paper.

Here's the card open.

This pic is from a different angle so you can see the reverse of the patterned paper is visible when the card is open.

I took this pic from the top. That's how the card should be displayed, you don't open the gatefold pieces all the way back.

Here's the next gatefold pop out card - this one is kept closed by ribbon. Punches were used to make the flower and I added a white Candi Dot to the centre.

Here's the card open. I covered the two end triangles with pink paper, added punched flowers and leaves and used a Craftwork Cards Mini Message for a sentiment. The three small flowers were blinged with gem centres.

Another pic from a different angle.

I used a 10" x 5" piece of paper to make the pop out inserts. Because the piece has to fold up inside and so is a tad bulky, you need 'clearance room' so that the insert fits inside nicely. I made the gatefold card 5 1/8" tall and made sure to score my gatefold pieces at 2 5/8" from both ends so that the 5" wide insert piece fits inside the score lines and the card closes neatly. Things I learned with my first couple of attempts making these pop out cards!

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

On Saturday I ran a second 'One Layout, Four Cards' class at the Glitter Pot. I was so embarrassed at the start as I'd left a plastic folder containing the class cards and other bits and pieces at home! My sweet friend Wendy drove me home to get it and we were back in the classroom in about ten minutes. I think that was a valuable experience, I'm willing to bet I won't ever forget class cards again! I opted for a very simple layout but as a card sketch is just a starting point there are plenty of opportunities for some creative adapting!

This first card follows the sketch layout faithfully, with six square tiles of patterned paper arranged on a 7" x 5" card base. Such an easy and quick card to make - and a great way to use up patterned paper scraps from the stash! I inked the edges of each square with Festive Berries Distress Ink, glued all the squares flat apart from the 'hello' square which I popped up. I die cut and shaped two red flowers, added silver Candi dots and popped both flowers up. I added some tiny silver pearls to the flowers on the 'hello' square to complete the card.

For this next card I switched to an A6 landscape orientated card and swapped two of the squares in the layout for a rectangle. What I really like about designing for these 'One Layout, Four Cards' classes is that I can make the cards look so different even though I'm using the same sketch layout. For this card I chose a white on white design. I think dimension and mixing textures and finishes is a good way to go when it comes to white on white cards. I made the card base from matt white card but used Bazzill Bling 'Diamond' CS for the panels, the pearly sheen gives such a lovely contrast. The embossed squares add all important texture and I added some ribbon and pearls for interest and extra contrast. I used two embossing folders for the square panels, left the rectangle plain but embossed the solid butterfly shape. Originally I glued the rectangle panel and embossed squares flat to the card but that looked - well, flat! Popping up those panels made a big difference! I glued the butterfly body flat to the panel but placed 3D foam pads under the wings, leaving the backing paper on to make sure the wings stay popped up.

For this card, rather than staying with squares I switched to hexagons. I cut a rectangular panel of white CS and applied Wild Honey and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks to the panel with Smoothie ink blending sponges. I stamped the Woodware 'Grasses Background' image onto the panel and then cut out six hexagons using a Nestie die. I punched a flower out from each shape and popped all the hexagons up. I highlighted some of the stamping with a glossy black Gelly Roll Glaze pen and placed gems in each flower centre to finish.

Here's a closer look at some glossy highlighting.

Versatility is important I think when creating with sketch layouts. I always like to see if the design works with both rectangular and square shaped cards. It has to be said that this particular layout definitely lends itself to rectangular cards! However, just one simple addition - a strip down the side of the card - and the layout works on a square card.

This time I switched from squares to circles and added stamped and shaped flowers. We have so many primroses in both our front and back gardens this year so they inspired me to make my flowers yellow. I used a new fave stamp set, 'Blossom', a clear set from Leane Creatief which makes easy work of two step stamping flowers. I used it on my last Glitter Pot class too, I love it! I covered a 5 1/4" square white card base with yellow paper, layered a kraft dotty paper panel onto a brown CS mat and glued that to the card front. The reverse side of the kraft dotty paper is the colourful, pretty flower lattice design and I glued a matted strip of that to the side of the card. I stamped the solid flowers in Memento Dandelion ink, stamped the dotty outlines in Rich Cocoa ink, fussy cut the flowers and popped them up onto 1 1/2" white punched circles. I stamped the sentiment onto white card, cut it out with the circle punch and popped that up. I added a brown gem to each flower centre to finish.

Thank you SO much to all the ladies that came along, it truly means a lot to me that you're supporting me and enjoying the 'One Layout, Four Cards' classes.

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

A while ago I saw a card I really liked on a Facebook page using a background stamp and a die that I have in my stash and I knew I'd have to CASE it and make my own version. The original card was very pretty in a lovely soft pink. I do love pink but I'm loving aqua more these days so I decided to make my card aqua and white with a dollop of black. I'm a huge fan of including some black or dark brown when I'm using softer colours, I think it adds a fabulous pop! My good friends Jan and Wendy really liked this card when they saw it and chose to make it when they last came to me for a crafty card making get together.

I stamped the Penny Black 'Majestic Composition' background stamp onto Pool Party CS using Pool Party ink, stamped the sentiment, trimmed the panel to size, inked the edges with Coastal Cabana ink and layered onto a black mat. I glued a black strip of CS to the right side of the card and added a white die cut border. I die cut two black flourishes using the MFT Die-Namics 'Medium Fancy Flourish' die, trimmed one shape down a bit and glued the pieces to the card making sure I left some portions without glue to add dimension. I stamped, punched and shaped the flowers and popped them up. I added aqua gems to the flowers and the die cut border to complete the card front.

Here's the inside and the envelope. I'm totally miffed that I forgot to ink the edges of my Pool Party sentiment panel! I had a piece of a flourish die cut left over so I used that to decorate the envelope flap. I cut the piece apart, glued the two pieces down and added the flower.

Monday, 13 April 2015

Last Friday I ran a 'One Sheet Wonder' all day class at the Glitter Pot. A One Sheet Wonder is a template you design using one sheet of paper and cut it in such a way that every piece of the paper is used to make a number of projects. I used a 12" x 12" sheet of 'Simple Stories - Colour Vibe Lights - Celery' double sided patterned paper, drew my designed template on the chevron printed side of the paper in pencil and carefully cut out the pieces with a craft knife and metal ruler. On the day of the class everyone first had to draw the template on their 12" x 12" sheet and cut it out into seven pieces. Then three of those pieces were divided further so that everyone ended up with a total of fourteen pieces of patterned paper. Those fourteen pieces were used to make nine projects - six cards, two tags and a gift bag. Some additional card and paper along with the 12" x 12" patterned paper sheet were needed to make the projects - white card, black card and some pink patterned paper were added.

Here are all the items shown together. They'd make a lovely gift set I think!

A 5" square piece of paper was cut in half diagonally to make the background for the 5 3/4" square Happy Birthday card. A 7" x 2" strip of paper was used to make the tag. On the card I glued the diagonal pieces of paper so they butted up exactly next to each other onto a layer of black CS. I wanted to add some definition so I drew a line with a black marker between the diagonal panels. A small touch but it makes a lot of difference! I stamped the butterfly onto the white panel for the card, stamped two butterflies onto the chevron paper of the tag, stamped the butterflies again onto a separate piece of white card, coloured them with ProMarkers and fussy cut the wings. I glued the bodies flat but placed 3D foam pads under the wings, leaving the backing paper on so that the butterflies remain popped up. The sentiment panel on the card and the white 'Especially For You' circle on the tag are both popped up.

Three 3" squares of paper were used for panels for these three 5 1/4" square butterflies cards. I stamped the butterflies onto pink patterned paper, added some colour with a Cerise ProMarker, fussy cut the butterflies and glued them the same way as I did on the above card and tag. I added black CS dots as embellishments - these were cut out from a handheld 1/4" circle punch.

Six 2" squares were used for these two DL sized cards. The flowers were made with the fab 'Blossom' clear stamp set from Leane Creatief. Two step stamping made easy with clear stamps - no stamp positioner needed! I stamped the solid flower first in Angel Pink Memento ink and stamped the dotty outline over the top in Tuxedo Black Memento ink. To help make sure the solid and outline stamped flower images would line up correctly I placed a permanent marker dot on one petal on both stamps. As long as both images are stamped in the same orientation (I chose to stamp with the dotted petal being positioned at the bottom) the flowers line up perfectly. I fussy cut each flower, added some Rose Bud ink with a sponge dauber, added dimension to the flowers with a shaping tool and moulding mat and popped the flowers up. The sentiment circle was also edged with Rose Bud ink and popped up. The leaves and flower centres were cut out with punches.

Finally, there is this 'Blossom' gift bag and tag, I used the We R Memory Keepers Gift Bag Punch Board to make the gift bag. The board makes a gusseted bag usually but I omitted certain score lines so that the gift bag wasn't gusseted. A 10" x 4" piece of paper was used for the gift bag and a 7" x 2" strip of paper was used for the tag.

During the day I stamped lots of two step blossoms and punched lots of leaves and circles. I thought it was unlikely that everyone would complete all nine projects on the day of the class but at least the ladies went away with their remaining patterned paper pieces and some punched and stamped shapes so they could finish things off at home! I also gave everyone a copy of the One Sheet Wonder template with cutting instructions and basic sketches of the projects. I reckoned it would be useful to have a resource to refer to later on if the ladies wanted to use the One Sheet Wonder template again.

What a lovely bunch of ladies, it was great fun sharing the One Sheet Wonder technique with them and we all enjoyed a happy, relaxed day!

Friday, 10 April 2015

Last Saturday morning I ran a 'Starry Birthday Wish' class at the Glitter Pot featuring die cutting, stencilling, stamping and dry embossing. I designed two cards, a pop up card plus a twisted easel card.

Here's the front of the pop up card. I loved these bright cheery papers and couldn't decide which one to use so I opted for a split diagonal design so I could incorporate both papers! The card base measures 5 1/4" square and I matted the diagonal paper panels on a Bazzill 'Bahama' CS layer. I stacked three stars together into one element and popped that up.

Here's the inside of the card with the surprise pop up star element. I stencilled the red star background onto a panel of white card by dabbing Festive Berries Distress Ink through the stencil using a Creative Expressions Smoothie sponge. I layered the stencilled panel onto a blue CS mat, glued that in place and added some small punched blue stars. The pop up support was made using a strip of red CS that was scored three times so that the strip had four equal size sections and then the strip was glued into place. The three stars were adhered together and then glued to the pop up support. The pop up element folds flat when the card is closed - a fab feature! I added a strip of dotty paper, some punched stars and a popped up sentiment to complete the card.

Here's the A6 sized twisted easel card. It's so easy to make a twisted easel card, it requires just one half of an A4 piece of CS (cut lengthways) and two score lines, one at the halfway point and then a diagonal score line. I dry embossed a panel of Tim Holtz Stormy Sky Distress CS with the X Cut 3D Stars folder, scuffed the embossing with a sanding block to bring out the detail and glued the panel into place. I cut a piece of dotty paper diagonally to fit on the front of the twisted easel part, adhered that and added the popped up die cut and punched stars. I stamped and popped up the sentiment element to act as a stop for the easel. I coloured just a few of the stars around the sentiment with a red ProMarker.

It was a really fun morning, there were a couple of ladies new to the world of card making and I so enjoyed sharing the techniques of stamping, die cutting, punching and dry embossing with them and witnessing their excitement. I've been card making for well over ten years now but still get a real buzz when I see that excitement and enthusiasm, it's just so infectious! The ladies who come on the Glitter Pot classes are fabulous, I love that they're always willing to help each other out with supplies, advice, tips and techniques. I think I've learned something new on each class! All of us in the class room are always willing to help with the crafty shopping lists too of course!

Thursday, 9 April 2015

Last Thursday we had our April card group get together and it was such an enjoyable afternoon. Me and Lesley have our birthdays in April so we got lovely handmade cards and Lesley and Sue both brought along delicious cakes for everyone. An afternoon crafting, chatting and eating cakes with a cuppa - that's a wonderful afternoon!

I designed three cards as usual, making sure that one was part of the set we'll be putting in a box later on. I used a circle die for the mask and brushed Wild Honey and Festive Berries Distress Inks through the mask to get the background. I then stamped the dandelions in black ink followed by the sentiment.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

The second card features a new Hero Arts 'Large Flower Background' stamp I got recently. I layered Blushing Bride, Early Espresso and Wild Wasabi CS mats onto the front of a 5 1/4" square cream card base. I stamped the whole image on Very Vanilla CS in Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and stamped just a part of the image again onto a piece of Very Vanilla CS. I inked the edges of the Very Vanilla square with Early Espresso ink, I coloured the flower with ProMarkers, fussy cut it and popped it up over the larger image. I cut a strip of vanilla flower trim, swiped the Bamboo Leaves ink pad over the flowers and left those to dry for a bit while I cut a Blushing Bride CS strip and inked the edges with Early Espresso ink. I adhered the flower trim in place with double sided tape. I stamped and punched the sentiment oval and was going to place it underneath the flower but it didn't look right. The design balanced better when I popped up the oval on the right side over the top of the flower trim. The pink pearls got lost just placed as they were on the Very Vanilla stamped panel so I punched Early Espresso CS 1/4" circles, glued them in place and added the pearls - ahh, much better! When using mainly pale, pastel colours I try to avoid a wishy washy look, I find that adding in a pop of a dark colour lifts and adds a bit of oomph that just rounds out a design so much better - in my view anyway!

More stamping of the background stamp was needed to decorate the inside of the card and the envelope. I think this was the card the ladies found most challenging and time consuming!

The third card is a bright and breezy number, loosely inspired by a card I made for a recent Glitter Pot class. I made a Bermuda Bay A6 sized card base, cut a panel of beautiful, shimmery Bazzill Bling 'Diamond' CS and dry embossed it with the Cuttlebug 'D'vine Swirl' folder. My sweet friend Lesley gave me the Impression Obsession 'Tied Line' die as a gift and I thought it would go really well with the Memory Box 'Surely Stitched Square' die. The one thing about these dies is the shapes are very delicate and can be difficult to glue in place without making a mess. I simply folded the ends of the die cuts over the edges of the embossed panel, taped them in place and glued the embossed panel to the card front - no mess! The 'Surely Stitched Square' die cuts the stitched frame and lines, a plain frame plus a small stitched square and I decided I'd use all these pieces. I glued the small stitched square over the 'Tied Line' die cut shape and added a shimmery white daisy. I added a trio of Bermuda Bay daisies to the Melon Mambo frame and sprinkled on a few yellow pearls. I stamped, die cut and popped up the sentiment label and added a small die cut butterfly to complete the card front.

Here's the inside of the card and the envelope. I stamped a sentiment and small flower image inside. For the envelope, I glued the plain Melon Mambo frame to the flap, inset a Bermuda Bay punched square and added a daisy with a pearl centre.

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Here's a Thank You card I made back in March for Jan. I was inspired by this lovely card made by Rita Wright that had caught my eye on Pinterest. I stamped the Hardwood stamp onto Crumb Cake CS with Crumb Cake ink, stamped the leaves in Soft Suede ink and stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso ink. I cut the panel to size, inked the edges with Early Espresso ink and glued the square to the front of a 4 3/4" square Pool Party card base. I stamped and punched the butterflies and glued them in place, making sure I'd folded the wings up a bit.

Here's the inside and the envelope flap. I really love the soft brown and aqua combo!

About Me

Hello, I'm Ruth Muzeen and I live with my hubby Owen and our cat Tingha in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.
Thanks for visiting to look at my creations, please click on a card photo in any blog post to get a larger view. I have categorised albums of my cards available to view on Google Photos. Just click on the category name to go to the relevant album. Please do leave any comments you have, it will be so nice to hear from you! For more info, please see the About Me - Extended tab up at the top.